Early Reviews of Crazy Dead

This well-written and often enthralling story is the
fourth in Kingsmill's series featuring quirky zoologist
Cordi O'Callaghan. While in a profound depression,
Cordi voluntarily committed herself to the
psychiatric ward of a Toronto hospital. As she
begins her recovery, she becomes aware that there
is something strange going on in her ward. Things
take a disturbing new turn when she finds Mavis, a
wealthy fellow patient, dead in the room they share.
The staff steadfastly denies that Mavis is dead,
Cordi's brother has more faith in the doctor's
assessment than in Cordi's, and the police are
unwilling to accept the word of a mental patient—
they need proof. Cordi, who has done her share of
amateur sleuthing in the past, decides to
investigate the death on her own. But even she
begins to doubt her perceptions of reality at times.
Was the murder real or a hallucination? Suspense
builds as Cordi and readers wonder whom she can
really trust. Kingswell's knowledge of psychiatric
conditions and therapies adds realistic details as
Cordi navigates her way among staff, patients, and
suspects on the way to the surprising denouement.
(July)

Crazy Dead review: Globe and Mail, by Margaret Cannon

By Suzanne F. Kingsmill, Dundurn, 264 pages, $11.99

The fourth outing for zoologist Cordi O’Callaghan is, literally, depressing. O’Callaghan finds herself in the
throes of an unrelenting black pit and is admitted to Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
(CAMH). This is a place where people with mental illnesses are supposed to be safe, but when one patient
dies it’s clear to O’Callaghan that there’s murder afoot. Kingsmill, who hails from Toronto, is a zoologist
and obviously knows plenty about depression and its treatment at CAMH. Combine that with a locked-
ward mystery, loaded with suspects high (doctors, staff) and low (patients) we end up with both a why-
done-it and who-done-it. Both plot lines work and Kingsmill once again delivers a first-rate story with an
engaging heroine.